The Yard: How an award-winning Scottish charity has grown to support over 2,800 children

I was delighted to be invited to share my personal leadership journey with the Deloitte Scotland team on the approach to International Women’s Day as it allowed me to reflect on the difference between running a charity and the demands of other businesses.

Leading a charity is not for the faint-hearted. In my case it demands knowledge of everything from supporting children with complex needs to sustainability and financial planning. The risks and responsibilities can be intense. If The Yard were to flounder, 63 people would lose their jobs, and thousands of families would lose a service they call home.

Like many business leaders, I am driven by personal passion. I found The Yard because my five-year-old son had been diagnosed with autism, and I struggled to find places where he could flourish. At the time, The Yard was a small community project offering a few play sessions from a rundown centre in Edinburgh and was on the brink of closure.

I had had a varied career in communications, however my path was set when I joined The Yard’s board. I learned that the charity had lurched from one financial crisis to another for over a decade and was resigned to closing its doors later that year. Plans to join the civil service were forgotten, and I became The Yard’s chief executive. I saw the potential. I wrote a plan – what could possibly go wrong?

At the start, we supported 50 children with three part-time staff and a turnover of £100k. Today, we support over 2,800 children with a turnover of £2.4 million. This year, we open a new centre in Glasgow, our fourth after Edinburgh, Fife, and Dundee.

Has it been easy? No. Have things gone wrong? Yes. But our story is one of consistent growth year on year, guided by our mission to build thriving communities for disabled children and their families.

For a charity, growth is not about shareholder value; it is about meeting a societal need. Since early 2023, our membership has grown by 60 per cent. Our schools service and youth groups are at capacity with waiting lists. Families desperately need more support, so our strategic response is to grow income and reach with our values-based services.

A fundamental challenge charities face is the lack of upfront investment. How do we grow the infrastructure we need without capital? When we began rebuilding The Yard, 93 per cent of our income came from charitable trusts and foundations. All our eggs were in one basket, and it was our biggest risk. My first step was diversifying income to create stability and enable growth.

As chief executive, I am responsible for everything any business leader must manage - finance, governance, HR - on top of business development. We have had to adapt continually to survive economic challenges and over time, we have moved from our heavy reliance on fundraising to a more diverse income model.

As we enter our new financial year in July 2025, we will earn nearly 50 per cent of the £3.1m needed to sustain our services. As we expand in Glasgow and Dundee, The Yard’s can-do responsive culture and social return on investment of £23 per £1 invested makes us ideally placed to help local authorities tackle challenges in complex care. Our loyal and experienced team offers trusted support and solutions for families.

Our people are the key to our success. Everything we do is rooted in our culture and values, which retain quality and experience despite rapid growth. Our values guide our behaviour, fostering a positive culture that translates into high team engagement and market competitiveness.

Everyone wants to believe their job makes the world better. At The Yard, we know it does. Our team sees and hears about their impact every day from our children, families, and professional partners. We cannot offer bonuses, but we can create a wonderful workplace that values, empowers, and respects everyone within our team. This is reflected in our net promoter score of 83 per cent. Our team is exceptional. A board member once joked that if you sliced through any team member like a stick of rock, they would say “The Yard” through and through.

In 2023, for the first time, we launched a public campaign, Our Kids Won’t Wait, to highlight the challenges resulting from the failure to keep levels of investment in line with our growth. We were relieved that the Scottish Government positively responded but sustainability remains a challenge. There is no room for complacency for any charity or business leader. We all worry about the future.

There are nearly 55,000 disabled children in Scotland receiving Child Disability Payment, and 40 per cent of school children require additional learning support. These statistics underpin the imperative of understanding how to create the conditions and culture that allow meaningful inclusion to flourish.

Being invited to address the Deloitte team was a great opportunity to compare challenges. All business leaders have a contribution to make in creating the right conditions for others’ success. I hope I can play my part.

Celine Sinclair is chief executive of The Yard and the overall winner of the 2024 Business Women Scotland 100 Female Entrepreneurs award